This invention relates to a method of manufacturing liquid crystal display elements and, more particularly, to a multi-element manufacturing process wherein a pair of plastic film substrates are prepared, a number of liquid crystal display cells are formed simultaneously between the substrates, and a liquid crystal material is filled in the cells and sealed.
It has already been known to use a plastic substrate as an electrode substrate of a liquid crystal display element in place of a glass substrate. The plastic substrate has possibility of its reduction in thickness and manufacture cost when compared to the glass substrate. In using the glass substrate as the electrode substrate of the liquid crystal display element, its thickness can only be about 0.2 mm at the thinnest for ease of handling whereas thickness reduction of the plastic film to below 0.2 mm is possible. For these reasons, substitution of plastic for glass for use in the substrate of liquid crystal display element has been studied.
In the manufacture of liquid crystal display element, a process of producing a single element one after another is difficient in view of economy. To obviate this drawback, a multi-element manufacturing process for simultaneous formation of a number of liquid crystal display cells between the glass substrates has been employed. In this process, the substrates are cut to divide a number of liquid crystal display elements thus formed into individual elements after or before the filling of the liquid crystal material. The process to cut the glass substrates is "scribing" wherein the glass substrates are first scribed by means of a sintered carbide or diamond cutter and then applied with force for separation.
This method of scribing, however, cannot be applied to the substrates of plastic film which not rigid unlike glass. For cutting the plastic film substrates, press dies with cutting blades may be used, but this cutting method is practically almost ineffective for cutting upper and lower substrates of large area which are put together with about 10 .mu.m distance therebetween.